What's in Kvothe's chest?

This post is my answer to the question posed in the title. A question nearly as old as this subreddit:

What's in Kvothe's chest?

This question is preceded by two others which we need to address before it, the first of which is:

Why Kote can't open Kvothe's chest in the first place?

After all, if he could, then we would just have the answer! To say it plainly, I believe Kote can't open Kvothe's chest *because* it's Kvothe's chest, and someone can't name, like naming the wind or opening a chest in this case, a thing they don't understand. If you're slightly confused by this notion, then don't worry. The answers lie in the next question that sits between us and our goal. That next question is:

Does Kote even know what's in that chest?

This question might seem strange at first, but step back and think about it for a moment. Consider that if Kote doesn't know how the chest was constructed, and the story leaves every possibility for that to be the case, then why is it any less reasonable that he might not know its contents?

But how could Kote possibly forget something like that? Well he couldn't, but this isn't a matter of forgetting, it's a matter of hiding, and Kvothe, as we saw early in his life when he played the mental game Seek the Stone, is capable of hiding information from himself. I think you might enjoy a bonus theory hidden here that the Stone, in Doors of Stone, refers more to the mental barrier presented in the game of Seek the Stone than any other. I believe this idea is probably new to many of you, hopefully its one you enjoy. But even that isn't the idea I want to share with you here today. After all, the third and final question remains regardless unanswered:

What's in the chest, damnit!?!

In this regard, I have had a recent breakthrough. I have finally discovered something new after years of pondering, postulating, and pounding my head on the text, demanding it serve up its secrets. This thing never once made itself clear to me until today:

It's not worth the price of knowing.

I want to be clear, I'm not saying the contents of that chest don't matter to him, or to you. I can't speak for anyone but myself, and in that, I would offer Kote this advice: walk away.

After all, what could be in that chest that's more important to him than the open road, stories, a night under new stars, songs, and small secrets shared between friends? That chest can no more hold the joy those things bring him than it could hold the moon.

Until today, I had always thought that Kote, by opening that chest and regaining his shadow cloak, magic rings, and whatever... that by doing that, Kote would then become the man he was before: kvothe.

But that's all backwards, those things don't define Kovthe, and whats more Kote doesn't need to become Kvothe... he needs to forgive him and have faith in tomorrow despite the pains of his past. I think for him that means wandering away and leaving that chest unopened.

My answer then, after all this, is that I don't know what Pat thinks is in that chest, but I appreciate that he wrote a story which let me find my own answers.

Thanks for reading,